Experienced credit card points traveler -- should I buy a time share for skiing?

[crystal413]

Absolutely! You can split it into a 3 day and a 4 day weekend. Check the OlympicVillageInn.com site for what's available to buy~
There are 2 sizes: Kitzbuhel, or Chamonix (fireplace and larger room), both are 1 bedroom, 1 bath.

 

[K2Quick]

I have been intrigued by some of the independents such as The Ridge Tahoe which sometimes are given away here on TUG and has reasonable MF. It has ski-on access to Heavenly via the stagecoach lift. I am not sure how it trades in II or RCI. So other TUG owners will need to comment or you can search TUG threads. Driving with a family is much more convenient and cost effective than flying so Tahoe has it's benefits.

I don't think I'd buy The Ridge Tahoe. I've never stayed there and it looks like a really nice resort, but it's also really easy to trade into for some reason. For example looking at current availability, I can book President's Day week for next year right now through II.

 

[K2Quick]

The Bend Worldmark is very nice and you can see the pictures on the site as well. Their room inventory is mostly studios and one bedrooms so you can book a couple rooms if you need more space. Drive from the WM resort to Mt Bachelor is 30 minutes each way.

Worldmark Eagle Crest would also be an option. Reasonable drive from there to Mt Bachelor and probably more inventory to choose from.

 

[crystal413]

Yes! You can reserve a 3 day and a 4 day to make up your week. And you can reserve 2 years in advance~

 

[DazedandConfused]

I am also a member of a ski family and what you are looking for, pretty much does not exist in timeshares as there are really only 15 great ski weeks (Dec 15 to April 7) and every timeshare has a premium on Christmas, New year, and Presidents Week and it is especially hard to book the 8 super desirable Feb-March weeks.

My recommendation is to buy at ONE location if you can find one you love, (ie Park City or Breckenridge, or Tahoe, etc) and book it one year in advance for 7 nights. Timeshares are super hard to book short weekend trips on late notice.

Here are some warnings
Marriott ski weeks is they book exactly 1 year in advance ad you have to book immediately when the reservation window opens and if you are late by 10 mins, you might get sold out. Also, some owners own two weeks and can reserve at 13 months.
Hilton only has Breck and Park city and they both are nice, but you have to own at one to get priority and book 12 months in advance or hope to book at 9 months (competing with every onther Hilton owner)
Westgate only has Park city and it is nice, but the annual dues are high
Hyatt is nice, but again, you can realistically only book at the resort you own
Park Plaza in park city is a bargain, but not skin-ski out
Cliff Club is good for snowbird, but that all
I don't know much about the others like worldmark

In reality, I think your past plan has worked the best for you and you should try to continue. Or simply rent weeks on VRBO or Homeaway or Redweek, etc.

 

[Colt Seavers]

Sounds to me like a timeshare week would fit well with your plans and enable you to enjoy quality accommodations at reasonable prices. It really depends how much effort you are willing to put in to maximize your investment, which I have found to be equally true with other vacation options.

We have made good use of one week per year by locking off the unit and trading each part in Interval for 1- or 2-bedroom units at our home resort or other comparable or better resorts for a net cost of $1000 or less per week. One thing I would change would be to upgrade to a gold or platinum week for better trading power as the annual dues are the same at most resorts regardless of which season you own. The 1-bedroom part of our lock-off has given us good access to 2-bedroom units at good resorts well ahead of check-in and the Studio part we usually use for short-notice reservations within driving distance as those are open for any unit to exchange.

We have been more than happy with Marriott, especially considering the Interval trading priority for other Marriotts and the free exchanges as we were able to enroll our week cheaply as pre-2010 owners. We also have a small number of points that we can use for short trips or extending a week which are nice to have but have not provided great value compared to direct reservations that are available to anyone.

We always travel for a week in the summer and also a week at thanksgiving, spring break, or before or after Christmas depending on where the break falls. I have not tried for a ski week around Christmas but we have gotten several other good trades for New Year's and I have seen a few good ski weeks pop up.

My only concern right now is the ever-increasing maintenance fees which are approaching your stated limit. I keep thinking they have to level off at some point but I have no idea when that will be.

 

[ski_sierra]

I am getting a 10k WM resale membership from a broker who has good reviews here.
https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/jjtimesharecom-on-ebay.272054/

I think it will suit me well as it is closest to a hotel points booking system. I primarily plan on using WM to book holidays weeks 13 months in advance. The waitlisting feature is nice too.

I'd also like to figure out if there is a way to use the Marriott/Hyatt program for flexible bookings for non-holiday periods. I can make a couple of trips (weekend/full week) every year that don't have to be on school holidays. I know I cannot count on the last minute availability. If I get a match, great; if I don't, I will cancel the trip. If the trip involves flights, I will book with Southwest points as cancellation is easy.
I like Marriott's properties in Tahoe & Park City. Hyatt's properties in Tahoe/Beaver Creek/Aspen would be nice to visit in early April. Hyatt Carmel on the weekend any time of the year as it's only a 1.5 hr drive from home.
I prefer small resorts in Hawaii. I think WorldMark has good options there. I don't like walking 1/2 mile within the resort to get to the beach, which I had to do on my last couple of trips to Hawaii.
Cities, Florida and Southwest Desert locations have limited appeal to me.

 

[Marathoner]

I am getting a 10k WM resale membership from a broker who has good reviews here.
https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/jjtimesharecom-on-ebay.272054/

I think it will suit me well as it is closest to a hotel points booking system. I primarily plan on using WM to book holidays weeks 13 months in advance. The waitlisting feature is nice too.

I'd also like to figure out if there is a way to use the Marriott/Hyatt program for flexible bookings for non-holiday periods. I can make a couple of trips (weekend/full week) every year that don't have to be on school holidays. I know I cannot count on the last minute availability. If I get a match, great; if I don't, I will cancel the trip. If the trip involves flights, I will book with Southwest points as cancellation is easy.
I like Marriott's properties in Tahoe & Park City. Hyatt's properties in Tahoe/Beaver Creek/Aspen would be nice to visit in early April. Hyatt Carmel on the weekend any time of the year as it's only a 1.5 hr drive from home.
I prefer small resorts in Hawaii. I think WorldMark has good options there. I don't like walking 1/2 mile within the resort to get to the beach, which I had to do on my last couple of trips to Hawaii.
Cities, Florida and Southwest Desert locations have limited appeal to me.

I personally think 10k is too small as you can only book a legacy 2BR week in red season with 10k. I would recommend getting 14k.

Sent from my LG-H932 using Tapatalk

 

[ski_sierra]

I personally think 10k is too small as you can only book a legacy 2BR week in red season with 10k. I would recommend getting 14k.

I can rent 20k points per year. I can also borrow 10k points from next year. If I like WM, I will add more points. Need to try it out first with low commitment.

 

[bizaro86]

I think 10k is a great first size. It's a the max credits of an MF band, which makes it more efficient to use and easier to sell if you need to. With renting in credits 30k/year is a lot of vacation capacity.

 

[CO skier]

I am also a member of a ski family and what you are looking for, pretty much does not exist in timeshares as there are really only 15 great ski weeks (Dec 15 to April 7) and every timeshare has a premium on Christmas, New year, and Presidents Week and it is especially hard to book the 8 super desirable Feb-March weeks.

I use WorldMark and Club Wyndham to book a Christmas or New Year's ski week every year. The maintenance fee costs are exactly the same as the rest of ski season or summer weeks.

I need to make my holiday reservations at the earliest opportunity 13 months in advance, but it is doable. All the ski weeks, other than holidays, are available in a Steamboat Springs unit 4-6 months in advance. A few weeks ago, I booked a four-night reservation in a WM Steamboat Springs 1 bedroom using Bonus Time (within 14 days of arrival) due to someone else cancelling their reservation. Total cost including taxes was $72.41/night. Their was 10" of new powder one of the mornings. Priceless.

Just got back from spring break at Steamboat Springs. There is a tremendous amount of snow left, and WM Steamboat Springs has availability every night for the rest of the ski season.

https://www.steamboat.com/plan-your...0&spJobID=741282574&spReportId=NzQxMjgyNTc0S0

3 days of skiing plus 4 nights lodging for $116.89/night total cost! I'll be there beginning next Monday.

 

[DazedandConfused]

I use WorldMark and Club Wyndham to book a Christmas or New Year's ski week every year. The maintenance fee costs are exactly the same as the rest of ski season or summer weeks.

I need to make my holiday reservations at the earliest opportunity 13 months in advance, but it is doable. All the ski weeks, other than holidays, are available in a Steamboat Springs unit 4-6 months in advance. A few weeks ago, I booked a four-night reservation in a WM Steamboat Springs 1 bedroom using Bonus Time (within 14 days of arrival) due to someone else cancelling their reservation. Total cost including taxes was $72.41/night. Their was 10" of new powder one of the mornings. Priceless.

Just got back from spring break at Steamboat Springs. There is a tremendous amount of snow left, and WM Steamboat Springs has availability every night for the rest of the ski season.

https://www.steamboat.com/plan-your-trip/tickets-and-passes/springalicious-pass?utm_source=IBM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SB_WIN-PAS-19_Springalicious-E4'MID_EML_BLN (1)&utm_content=HeroImageSpringalicious&&spMailingID=3171559&spUserID=MTA4NjYwNjE5Nzk5S0&spJobID=741282574&spReportId=NzQxMjgyNTc0S0

3 days of skiing plus 4 nights lodging for $116.89/night total cost! I'll be there beginning next Monday.

That is an amazing bargain, I personally have the Epic pass and get good use of it

 

[talkamotta]

Best skiing is Alta or Snowbird, Utah. So Cliff Lodge would be great but you need to buy a fixed week. Its good for summer hiking too. But I would probably go for Marriotts because their trading value is good for other places.

 

[VacationForever]

I'd also like to figure out if there is a way to use the Marriott/Hyatt program for flexible bookings for non-holiday periods. I can make a couple of trips (weekend/full week) every year that don't have to be on school holidays. I know I cannot count on the last minute availability. If I get a match, great; if I don't, I will cancel the trip. If the trip involves flights, I will book with Southwest points as cancellation is easy.
I like Marriott's properties in Tahoe & Park City. Hyatt's properties in Tahoe/Beaver Creek/Aspen would be nice to visit in early April. Hyatt Carmel on the weekend any time of the year as it's only a 1.5 hr drive from home.
I prefer small resorts in Hawaii. I think WorldMark has good options there. I don't like walking 1/2 mile within the resort to get to the beach, which I had to do on my last couple of trips to Hawaii.
Cities, Florida and Southwest Desert locations have limited appeal to me.

I see that no one has jumped in to explain the Marriott program. You can buy a straight ski week on the resale market (or through Marriott's resale department) and it is expensive. That is your best bet to get a ski week. If you want partial week stay, then you are looking at the points program. Between cost of buying resale points and paying Marriott's "junk fees" to get the points accepted into the program, you are looking at about $7.00 per point. MF on a point is currently 58 cents per point. I have not looked at the points chart but to get a weekend stay at peak ski season you will easily need at least 3000 points for a 2BR just for the weeekend. Cost to buy 3000 points will come up to $21K, yes it is resale cost + Marriott junk fees, and MF will be about $1,740. Not cheap by any means. Then there are different levels of membership, which is directly correlated to number of points owned. At 3000 points, you can only book 1+ days stay at 10 months. What you want may no longer be available at 10 months. To book at 13 months out you need to own a minimum of 7000 points. For someone who is new and still learning about timeshare, I would advise you to stay away from Marriott points system.

 

[ski_sierra]

I see that no one has jumped in to explain the Marriott program. You can buy a straight ski week on the resale market (or through Marriott's resale department) and it is expensive. That is your best bet to get a ski week. If you want partial week stay, then you are looking at the points program. Between cost of buying resale points and paying Marriott's "junk fees" to get the points accepted into the program, you are looking at about $7.00 per point. MF on a point is currently 58 cents per point. I have not looked at the points chart but to get a weekend stay at peak ski season you will easily need at least 3000 points for a 2BR just for the weeekend. Cost to buy 3000 points will come up to $21K, yes it is resale cost + Marriott junk fees, and MF will be about $1,740. Not cheap by any means. Then there are different levels of membership, which is directly correlated to number of points owned. At 3000 points, you can only book 1+ days stay at 10 months. What you want may no longer be available at 10 months. To book at 13 months out you need to own a minimum of 7000 points. For someone who is new and still learning about timeshare, I would advise you to stay away from Marriott points system.

This is very helpful. I think that price and MF is not something I want to commit to long term. I also read in another thread that you don't really get as much for your MFs with Marriott as you do with HGVC, Hyatt. I read that Marriott does have a nice discount on last minute inventory but it certainly won't be enough to justify the upfront cost and MF.

I enjoyed a 3 night stay at Marriott Mountainside Park in March. I bought another package -- $895 for 4 nights . I will probably just try to rent from owners in future. I wasn't even aware of Redweek before I joined TUG. It's a great website.

 

[ontilt]

I think you're making the right call, and we do the same thing. We actually skiied more outside of Tahoe this year, than in as sad as that sounds. The traffic is horrendous and there a couple sierra cement days that were just a bummer. Although we are heading up to do backcountry in Carson Pass this weekend. That said, we ski epic and used to do Mountain Collective (kids used to be $1 for the season).

I have HGVC Valdoro for Breckenridge (x2) and was able to book the president's day ski week and use points for Park City often (was in Park 3x this year). It's ski in and out off the Sunrise chair in Canyons. I've heard great things about Cliffs, but you would be locked into Snowbird and there are cheap hotels in Cottonwood if you're heading out that way. Plus, there's nothing else to do in Snowbird (but the snow is amazing). Last week of January may be tough in PC because of Sundance.

For Vail and Beaver Creek, I've been looking at Wyndham, which seems to also offer a fair amount of flexibility. Others have mentioned Worldmark as well which seems to have some good locations as well.

I haven't seen anything around Grand Targhee, Jackson Hole or Big Sky, but haven't done a ton of searching there... welcome and good luck!!

 

[Lttedeschi]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?

South Lake Tahoe, Northern Utah for skiing.

So far I have traveled primarily using credit card points, but it takes a bit of work and I'm no longer interested in spending the time in maintaining credit cards. It has taken me to nice places like Ritz Carlton Tahoe, Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch, Waldorf Astoria Park City. I will still maintain cards that give free nights every year (Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental) but I won't be earning points aggressively with credit card signups.

I have stayed at following timeshare properties and I like them better than hotels since they have more space and kitchen: Sheraton Mountain Vista Avon, Marriott Mountain Side Park City, Marriott Timber Lodge Tahoe.

Looking for a timeshare program that I can utilize for ski travel during peak or non peak weeks. If traveling during holidays, I would go to following resorts:

• Mt. Rose Reno Nevada
• Mt. Bachelor Bend Oregon
• Brundage McCall Idaho
• Schweitzer Sandpoint Idaho
• Beaver Mountain Utah
• Powder Mountain Utah
• Grand Targhee near Jackson Wyoming
• Big Sky Montana
• Aspen Snowmass or Buttermilk Colorado

If traveling during non peak times, I would consider following places:

• Park City Utah
• South Lake Tahoe CA/NV
• Kirkwood CA
• Squaw Valley CA
• Beaver Creek CO
• Snowbird or Alta Utah

I will take some weekend trips to Heavenly, Kirkwood as I can take the bus from Bay Area.

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?

Depends on what is good value. I might not want to trade if it is not cost effective. But leaning towards trading.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?

Kauai, Maui, Big Island, Cabo, Costa Rica

4) How many people do you usually travel with?

75% - 3
25% < 8


5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?

Locked into California public school schedule.
Ski during following weeks as well as regular weekends:

• 2 weeks Xmas
• 1 week President's day
• 1 week Easter -- Alta/Snowbird/Brighton/Solitude

One year, I may do a Xmas ski trip; other year, I'll do a warm weather trip. I would like to do an April ski trip every year but since lodging is cheap in that time frame, it's not the biggest consideration


6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?

yes

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
a minimum 1 week ski trip every year. A lot of weekend trips to the Sierras but a minimum 1 week ski trip every year.


8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
I have been staying at a lot of 5* places using credit card points. We are a bit spoiled. 3.5* would be minimum.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
10k per week for holiday weeks
5k per week for non-holiday weeks


10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
$1500 per week

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
yes

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
yes

I own Raintree points and booked Miners Club which is near the Waldorf for Presidents weekend Fri-Wed 2020. I also own 3 week 51’s a 52 and a 7 at Mountainside. If I don’t use them, I rent them on Redweek and the return on investment is double digits.